According to Wikipedia, “Sanctification is
the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming
holy.... To sanctify is to literally "set
apart for particular use in a special purpose or work and to make
holy or sacred." I have been thinking about this whole
sanctification process and how it works and shows itself evident
through the lives of believers. In Galatians 1:15-16, Paul refers to
himself as one whom God had ‘set apart,’ “..he
who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his
grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might
preach him among the Gentiles”. We must understand, that
while it is true that God is the One who sets us apart and sanctifies
us, it is also true that we are responsible to make every effort to
live holy lives. In 1 Peter 1:14-16 we are told,”As
obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former
ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all
your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am
holy.”
In 1 Peter 1:5-8 we are told to, “make every
effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with
knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with
steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with
brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if
these qualities are yours and are increasing, they
keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ.” I think we should make note of that
phrase, ‘if these qualities are yours and increasing,’ for
if we appear to have these qualities and yet they do not increase,
but rather diminish over time to a point where they no longer exist,
this displays evidence that we were not in Christ to begin with.
The joy of the sanctification process is that God works in us (as we
walk with Him), throughout our lifetime conforming us to the image of
Christ. Romans 8:29 reads, “For those whom he
foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son..” In
Romans 6:19 Paul writes,
“I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.
For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and
to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your
members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification”
(Romans 6:19). Here
we have two aspects
of truth
displayed
in regard to the
gospel message- God’s sovereignty in salvation and man’s
responsibility to
live a
righteous
life.
While it is true that Christ
frees us from the bondage of sin completely in eternity, if
we belong to Him, it is also true that He frees
us from the bondage of sin daily, as
we walk
with Him. However,
if at any time we do not look to Him and are striving in our own
strength (or the flesh nature), it is not because Christ has not
freed us from sin, but because we are following that old sinful
nature. In
1 Peter 2:16 we are told to “Live
as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for
evil, but living as servants of God.”
In other
words, “put
off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is
corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of
your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians
4:22-24).
Galatians 6:7-8 reads, “Do
not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will
he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the
flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from
the Spirit reap eternal life.” I’m
sure we have all heard the familiar quote, “Sow a thought, reap an
action.” We need to remember 2 Corinthians 10:5 in this, “We
destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the
knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
bringing to mind
the following verse when faced with the temptation to sin in our
thought, word, or deed,
“whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any
excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these
things” (Philippians
4:8). If
we are thinking
on these kinds of things, then we will reap these kinds of actions.
If you sow thoughts
that
are commendable, then you will
reap acts that
are commendable.
Likewise, if you sow evil
thoughts, you will reap evil actions. Matthew 5:28 reads,
“I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful
intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” “The
good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and
the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of
the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke
6:45).
The
only good any
of us can do
comes from Christ’s work within us, so if we
are not in Christ, we can do no good,
“But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses
are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like
the wind, Have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6).
If
we are in Christ, we will
be displaying the fruit of the Spirit within our lives, “The
fruit of the Spirit is “love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). While we
will not exhibit all of these qualities within our lives 100% of the
time, there must be evidence that we possess all of these qualities
and are exhibiting a greater sense of them more and more, as we grow
and mature in our faith and over time due to God’s work of
sanctification within us. In other words, we will become more and
more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle
and self-controlled as God works within us throughout our lives in
order to mold us more and more into the image of Christ. These
qualities will become more abundantly clear in the lives of God’s
people, “For by a
single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being
sanctified,”(Hebrews 10:14).
If,
as one who has read this, you are a professing Christian who
feels
as
if something is just not right within your own heart, I would urge
you to
examine
your life in the light of God’s word and see how you measure up,
seeking
God diligently as you do so, for He has said,
“I
love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me”
(Proverbs 8:17), so
we
must,“Submit
(y)ourselves
therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw
near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:7). If
we are faithful in our obedience, He will be faithful to finish His
work,
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good
work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
(Philippians 1:6). Let
us be
“looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews
12:2).
“Now
may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to
you, and may
the Lord make
you increase
and abound in love for one another and for all, as
we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in
holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus
with all his saints”
(1
Thessalonians 3:11-13).
To
the praise of His glory, Amen.
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